For RFP analysis, what is the purpose of allocating weighting to rfp questions?

Weightings define the importance of a question with respect to the rest of the questions in the RFP questionnaire. When weightings are allocated in SupplierSelect, they are converted to percentages, so that you can see how much one question contributes to the overall RFP. Questions in a SupplierSelect RFP are organized into sections and subsections. Weighting percentages are shown for each question relative to both the parent section and the whole RFP. In the RFP analysis, vendors' scores for individual question responses are multiplied with with the question weighting to give a total weighted score. Total weighted scores are used to drive the RFP analysis charts.

For example, you might have a questionnaire with 5 questions. If you allocate a weight of "1" to each question, then each question will contribute 20% of the total questionnaire.

first question - weight: 1 (20%)

second question - weight: 1 (20%)

third question - weight: 1 (20%)

fourth question - weight: 1 (20%)

fifth question - weight: 1 (20%)

If you now increase the weighting of question 5 to "2", then questions 1 to 4 will each contribute 16.66%, and question 5 will contribute 33.33%:

first question - weight: 1 (16.7%)

second question - weight: 1 (16.7%)

third question - weight: 1 (16.7%)

fourth question - weight: 1 (16.7%)

fifth question - weight: 2 (33.3%)

Using weightings separately from question scores allows great flexibility when analyzing an RFP. For example, SupplierSelect supports the concept of multiple weighting sets - managing multiple parallel sets of weightings to reflect divergent priorities of various parties involved in the RFP analysis.